Grandpa Frank
by ericdelkogirl
Summary: Frank takes his Goddaughter Miranda Delko to the zoo but something bad happens. Will she live or die?
1. Chapter 1

A Special Day With Grandpa Frank By Heather Pierson

3/20/09 10:30am

Frank had waited for today to come for awhile.

He woke up and called Eric and Calleigh to let him take Miranda out for day at the zoo.

After eating breakfast and packing his bag with the map and book of info Eric gave him the previous day he arrived at their house, "Hey Eric, is Miranda ready?"

Eric came up to him and shook his hand, "hey Frank. She'll be down in a minute. Calleigh's upstairs helping her get ready."

Just then Calleigh comes down and hugs Frank, "hey. Miranda's fixing up her hair. Today is all she's been talking about since you asked to take her."

A few mins later Miranda comes down, sees Frank and runs up to him, "Grandpa Frank."

He picks her up and hugs her tight, "so are you ready to spend a special day with me?"

She hugged him back and kissed his cheek, "I've been waiting for today all week. I've been extra good so I could go with you today."

He puts her down and grabs her hand, "well if we wanna be there in a ½ hr we better leave now."

Eric picks her up and hugs her, "Miranda be good and stay with Grandpa Frank at all times. I'll be very upset if something happens to you."

Miranda puts her arms around his neck, "Daddy you know I'm a good girl when I'm in public."

Eric put her down and Calleigh knelt down and said, "we know sweetie but we just don't want somebody to take you away or something bad to happen to you."

Miranda looks at her and reminds her slightly upset, "mommy when was the last time I ran away from you or daddy?"

Calleigh blushed, "I know you never did that before. I just want you to be careful."

5 mins later Frank and Miranda leave for Miami Metro zoo. He unbuckles her seatbelt and takes her out of the car, "here Miranda. Grab my hand. I don't want anybody taking you from me."

Kylie looks up at him and says, "Grandpa Frank you're wearing your badge today for safety reasons. Nobody will take me from you since your a cop."

He laughed at her and says, "your right Miranda. Nobody messes with my granddaughter. So what do you wanna see first?"

She smiled that Delko smile at him and says, "actually I wanted to get something to eat 1st."

He walks a bit with her and says, "Ok watcha wanna eat?"

She looks at the menu and says, "a burger and cheese fries- my favorite."

He pulls out his wallet and says to the concession stand man, "yea gimme two cheeseburgers, 1 cheese fry, a regular fry and two waters." He grabs there stuff and they walk back to where the trees are and sits down.

Miranda sits down and helps him sort out the food, "Ok grandpa Frank what animals are we gonna see today?"

He opens her water for her and says, "well if we go see the giraffes we need to get food for them first. You can feed them at this zoo. Not all zoos allow their visitors to do that."

She takes a big bite of her burger and says, "that's sounds cool. I heard they have long tongues but what are they for?'

Frank takes out his book and searches it, "well it says here that the tongue helps them reach hard to reach leaves on high branches on tall trees."

They finish their lunches together and throw away their trash, "well Randa let's head off to the giraffe station."

They head over there and buy food for them.

She started to feed them and one of them licks her hand, "eww. Grandpa Frank he licked me."

He takes out the hand sanitizer and squirts some in her hand, "rub your hands together all over."

She does so and they finish feeding the giraffes. They leave the giraffes and head over to the polar bears and watch them swim and interact with each other.

They continue their day together and Frank takes her home.

She walks in the door in front of Frank and yells, "mommy. I'm home."

Cal came out from the kitchen and put the plate of mini brownies on the table, "hey Miranda. How did today go with Grandpa Frank?"

She sat at the table and both her and Frank grabbed a brownie, "great mommy. Grandpa Frank bought me a tiger cub to sleep with at night."

She bite her brownie and says, "he's cute. Can you go put it in your bedroom where he belongs".

She runs up to her room and puts her tiger away.

When she comes out she sees Eric coming out of his bedroom, "Daddy."

She runs up to him and he scoops her up in his arms and spins her around, "hey princess. Did you like today with Grandpa Frank?"

He puts her down and she says, "yea I did daddy. Mommy is downstairs with him talking about what happened today."

They walk downstairs and into the kitchen. He sits at the table and puts Miranda on his lap before she takes a brownie and feeds Eric.

Just then Miranda shuts her eyes in pain and falls out of Eric's arms.

He looks up at Calleigh and looks back down, " Miranda wake up." He taps her cheek and says, "wake up princess."

Calleigh comes by her side and feels the front and back of her head.

Miranda cries out in pain while holding her chest, "mommy make it stop."

Eric kneels down next to her and checks her pulse and breathing, "I think she needs to go to the hospital Cal."

Calleigh looks up at him horrified, "I agree."

So Eric scooped her up in his arms and the four of them beelined it to the hospital while Eric left a message for Horatio to tell the rest of the team to come too.

As they they drove down the causeway Miranda was still complaining about her chest, "Daddy my chest hurts. Make it stop."

He rubs her tummy and says, "don't worry princess. Mommy, Daddy and Grandpa Frank are here."

They arrive and Eric hollers, "hey I need a doctor here."

One comes up with a stretcher and he lays her on it, "what's going on?"

Frank interrupts terrified, "I took her to the zoo and she was Ok there but when I brought her home she was sitting at the kitchen table and she collapsed after eating a brownie."

Frank looks at Calleigh and at the doctor, "let's cut to the chase. Will my granddaughter be Ok?"

The doctor looked up at him and says, "I won't know till I run some tests on her."

The doctors take Miranda to the emergency room while Calleigh, Eric and Frank walk into the waiting room.


	2. Chapter 2

5 mins later the rest of the team arrives. Horatio comes up and hugs Calleigh and shakes Eric's hand, "what happened guys?"

Frank sat down with a terrified look on his face, "I can't help to think this is all my fault. I took her to the zoo, brought her home and when we were eating brownies she collapsed."

Alexx sat down next to Frank and put her hand on top of his, "Frank did this happen while you took her out or afterwards?"

He put his head down and started to cry, "Afterwards but I can't help to think I did something to make her sick."

She lifted his head up and said, "Frank. None of this is your fault."

She turned to Eric and Calleigh who is sitting on his lap wiping her face, "Calleigh baby, Eric. None of this is your fault either. Remember that. Right now you all need to remember Miranda needs you to be there for her."

Just then the doctor comes in and smiles, "well I can see that Miranda has lots of family that loves her."

Eric rubbed Calleigh's back and looked up at him, "yea we're all practically family. So what's going on with my little girl?"

He puts his head down and says, "I'm sorry to say this but your daughter needs to be kept here for a day or two. We need to monitor her to find out what's wrong with her. If one of you would like to stay over night with her tonight and tomorrow that would be fine."

Nat walks out of the room hysterical and Ryan runs after her and holds her, "hey Nat. Listen, everything will be Ok with her. Miami Dade is one of the best hospital's in the country. We need to stay focused on her right now. She really needs us."

Nat wipes her face and says, "Ryan. I love that little just like you do. I don't wanna lose her."

He holds her tight and kissed her, "Nat listen. She's gonna be fine. She's got a lot of family here that loves her and will do anything to make her better. Right now we need to make sure Calleigh and Eric are Ok. Let's go back in the waiting room."

They hold hands while walking back and Nat hugged Eric and Cal. Eric comes up to her and says, "everything Ok guys?"

Ryan looks up at him while his arm is around Nat, "yea she's just a little freaked about what's going on."

Eric sits next to her and puts his arm around her shoulders, "Natalia listen. None of this is in your control. We just have to hope that she'll be Ok and that there's nothing seriously wrong with her."

The next day Calleigh was sitting in the break room on Eric's lap with his arms around her looking through a photo album full of pictures of Miranda's 5th birthday party, "Eric what if she's really sick? What are we gonna do?"

Eric pulls his arms around her extra tight and says, "Cal listen. She's gonna be Ok. We just have to wait and see what's wrong with her. I'm almost positive it's nothing major."

Just then Horatio walked in the door and said happily, "Eric. Calleigh, the doctor called. He wants all of us at the hospital now."

They put the book down on the table and book it to the hospital.

The doctor comes in and asks all of them to sit down.

Calleigh looks at Eric with a terrified look on her face and asks the doc, "Ok doc so what's wrong with our little girl?"

Nat and Ryan look at each other while Frank gives Horatio a worried look.

The doc looks at Cal and bluntly said, "your daughter is allergic to caffeine. Caffeine is in chocolate which made her heart rate sky rocket."

Ryan puts his arm around Nat and asks him relieved, "how do we prevent this from happening again?"

He smiled and says while leaning forward and folding his hands, "keep her completely off of milk and dark chocolate as well as any drinks with caffeine. If you do that this will never happen again. I'm also gonna provide you with some medication for her to take to prevent this from ever happening again."

Calleigh sighs and hugs Eric and holds his hand, "can we all go see her?"

He smiled wide and says, "yes but only 2 at a time. You'll make her feel overwhelmed and you don't want that after an incident like this."


	3. Chapter 3

The team gets up and goes up to her room.

Cal and Eric look at each other and grab hands before walking in.

Miranda looks up at her and says, "mommy. Daddy."

Calleigh and Eric grab chairs and she grabs Miranda's hand, "how are you feeling baby?"

She smiled at Cal and says, "much better.

The doctor gave me some medicine through a shot and made me better."

Eric rubs her tummy and tells her trying not to get upset in front of her, "well Miranda. I hate to say this but the doctor says that you can't have anymore milk or dark chocolate or you may get sick like this again."

Miranda smiles and says, "that's Ok daddy. I don't like dark chocolate anyway."

Eric smiled and says, "well princess. You'll be very happy to know all of your extended family is here in the waiting room."

She smiled and says, "can I see them all?"

Cal smiles and says, "sure. Lemme go get them."

She leaves while Eric sits closer to her and holds her hand, "you know Grandpa Frank is pretty upset about what happened."

She looks at him worried and says, "why? This isn't his fault."

Eric puts his head down and brings it back up again, "well he's very upset because he thinks he did this to you but-"

Miranda interrupts him, "daddy go get him first. He didn't do any of this neither did you or mommy. It just happened. I'm Ok now."

Just then Calleigh returns with Frank trailing behind her, "Miranda I'm so sorry."

He hugged her tightly and pushed her hair out of her eyes, "when you get better I'll take you back to the zoo. In the meantime I bought something for you."

He leaves the room to go to the door and gets a bag. He gives it to her and says, "I hope this tells you how precious you are to me. You're the only granddaughter I have."

She pulls out a tiger stuffed animal and says, "thank you Grandpa Frank. I'll sleep with him every night to think of you."

He kissed her forehead and said, "I'm glad you like him. When I saw him I knew he was just right for you."

Miranda puts her new animal in her arms and asks, "is everybody else here?"

Eric brightly said to her, "everybody except aunt Maxine."

She looks at him worried holding her tiger tighter and asks, "where is she? I thought mommy said everybody was here?"

Frank looked up at Miranda and says, "we called her and told her what happened. She's on her way."

Frank gave her a big kiss on her forehead and left the room with his heart feeling a little bit lighter knowing that Miranda wasn't mad at him.

He went to the waiting room where Horatio, Alexx, Nat and Ryan were waiting for info. "Hey guys, she's doing surprisingly well and wants to see ya'll but maybe two at a time..," with a huge smile on his face.

"Wolfe call Maxine again and find out where she is. Miranda asked for her again. Also tell her Miranda is upset she's not here."

He nodded his head and said, "yes sir."

Just then H & Alexx walked into her room.

Alexx sits at the foot of the bed and asked her worried, "how are you feeling Miranda?"

She smiled and said, "I was hurting for a while but I'm better now."

Horatio stood in front of the bed and gave a small bag to Alexx, "can you give that to Miranda please?"

She opened the box which contained a frame with a picture of her with Nat's arms around her holding her from her first visit to the lab, "do you remember that day?"

She looked at the picture with a quivering mouth and said, "yea. That's the day I found out my closest friend Carmen went missing and I hung out with aunt Nat at the lab. But I'm glad mommy and daddy found her."

H sat next to her with his arm around her and said, "I didn't give you that to remember your friend going missing I gave this to you to remember you and Aunt Natalia being together that day."

She put the picture frame on the table beside her and Calleigh looks at Eric and turns back to Miranda, "hey mommy and daddy are gonna go downstairs and get something to eat. Do you want anything?"

She looks at Eric and says, "yea can you bring back an ice cream soda or slurpee or somethin'?

Cal looks at Eric and says, "yeah. Be right back."

Just then Alexx sat closer to Miranda, grabbed her hand and asks her, "how would you feel about Aunt Maxine and I coming to school when you go back?"

She smiled wide and said, "yea that would be great. I'd love it."

Just then Maxine walks in, kissed Miranda's forehead and says, "I dropped what I was doing when I heard what happened. What's going on?"

She sat next to Miranda and Alexx said, "her heart rate skyrocketed and Eric, Calleigh and Frank rushed her here from home.

The doctor said she had an allergic reaction to caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant that is in both milk and dark chocolate"

Maxine put her arm around Miranda and asked her sweetly, "are you Ok Miranda?"

She looked at Maxine and said, "yeah. I'm much better now that all of you are here."

Maxine looked at the tiger stuffed animal and said, "who's the tiger from?"

She looked down at it and said, "Grandpa Frank. He was really upset that this happened and gave him to me to get better."

Just then Cal and Eric come back and H looks at his watch, "well Miranda. visiting hours are almost over so we're gonna go home."

They each hugged Miranda except when Calleigh came up to her she grabbed Cal's hand, "mommy would you stay with me tonight just like on the nights we have bad storms?"

Cal looks at Eric and he looks at Miranda somewhat hurt and asks, "what about me?"

She smiled and said, "you can stay tomorrow night daddy."

He grinned wide and said, "Ok."

Right before the team left, they all hug and kiss her goodnight.

Just when the nurse comes in to give Miranda her meds the nurse starts trouble with Calleigh, "excuse me ma'am. Visiting hours are over."

Calleigh looks up at the nurse and calmly says, "I'm aware of that but my daughter has requested that I stay with her tonight."

The nurse looked at Calleigh getting upset, "I'm sorry Mrs. Delko but you can't stay here."

Calleigh pulled out her badge and said, "excuse me but maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. I'm with MDPD and my positiion overrides your policy. Now if you don't mind I said that I was staying with my daughter tonight. May I have an extra blanket to cover myself with please?"

The nurse looked at her and said, "I'm sorry. I'll get one as soon as I give your daughter her medication."

The nurse gives Miranda her meds and gets Calleigh the blanket. Calleigh asks her, "do you think we should call daddy before bedtime?"

Miranda smiles at her and says, "of course mommy."

They dial up Eric and have a nice conversation before Calleigh crawls next to Miranda, kisses her nose and says, "night babe."

They curl up in each others arms and Miranda says, "night mommy."


	4. Chapter 4

The next day Miranda goes home and back to school.

Right after lunch Miranda puts her stuff in her cubby hole and comes back to the classroom.

Just before she sat down she saw Maxine set up their experiment with Alexx.

"Aunt Maxine. Aunt Alexx," she hollers as she runs up to them.

Maxine picks her up and sets her on the table, "hey you. Is today going ok?"

Miranda put her head down and said, "well no. None of my friends welcomed me back except a few."

Maxine pushes Miranda's hair back and says, "that means that the kids that didn't welcome you back aren't your real friends. They only wanted to be your friends before you got sick. They think that's cool but it's not."

Just then Alexx walks up to them and sits on the table with all their equipment, "Aunt Maxine is right. The kids that didn't welcome you back don't deserve your friendship. You'll be able to find some new friends. You're a smart girl and you deserve better than that. Mommy and daddy would say the same thing."

Miranda looked over at the girls snickering at her and said, "you're right Aunt Alexx, Maxine. I deserve better." She walks back to her desk, snaps her fingers towards her classmates, and walks away to sit down while the girls just looked at her stunned.

Just then Ms. Mitchell walks up and says, "class today we have a special presentation. Miranda's Aunt Alexx and Maxine have come to tell you about what they do at work. Maxine, Alexx the floor is all yours."

The class applauses and they begin the presentation. Alexx steps up to the middle of the table and introduces herself, "My name is Alexx Woods and I'm the Medical Examiner for Miami Dade Police Department. Basically what I do is when somebody gets hurt and they're bought into the MDPD it's my job is to find out how they got hurt and to give there soul a peace of mind. I also help out my colleagues when they don't want to see their real doctor. Since you guys are a little young I'm gonna show you part of my job. I asked your teacher to help you put a bunch of things in your hands so I could do my part of the presentation. Who wants to go first?"

Miranda's friend Carmen raises her hand and Maxine calls her name.

Maxine puts her on the table and Alexx takes a cotton swab and gives it to Maxine, "My name is Maxine Velera and I'm the DNA analyst. My job is to find out what the substance is on this swab. What I do is I cut the swab and put it into the mass spec and put it into a machine that will tell me what kind of substance is on the swab."

She cuts the swab and puts it into the mass spec and the printer prints out a paper that says what the results are, "Carmen. The substance that you have on your hands is black top."

Alexx takes her off the table and takes her to the sink and washes her hands.

Maxine continues the presentation and they clean up.

When they finish cleaning up Miranda walks up to Mrs Mitchell and asks her, "since it's almost lunchtime can I go have lunch with my Aunts today? I hardly get to see them because of their jobs."

She looks over at Maxine and she puts her hands up to say, 'I had no idea she was gonna do this.'

Mrs Mitchell looked back at Miranda and said, "sure. Why not. But just for today and come back at one o'clock we have a lot to do today including studying for a spelling test."

Miranda hugs her and says, "thanks."

Mandy put her hand on her cheek and kissed her forehead goodbye, "see ya in an hr. Now go."

They three of them left and went to Burger King.

Just as the walk in the restaurant Miranda notices Frank.

She runs up to him and hollers, "Grandpa Frank."

He picks her up and hugs her tight, "what are you doing out of school young lady?"

She points to Maxine & Alexx and says, "Aunt Maxine and Aunt Alexx visited my class today and I asked Miss Mitchell if I could have lunch with them. What are you doing here?"

He holds her in his arms and says with a big smile on his face, "I'm picking up some lunch for myself and gonna take it back to my office."

Miranda puts her head down and says sadly, "you don't want to have lunch with me?"

He looks up at Alexx and Maxine and said, "sure why not. I can have lunch with you in the break room at the lab then you can tell me about your day."

They all get in line and Frank puts Miranda on his shoulders, "so what do you want princess?"

She looks down and him and says, "chicken fries and french fries- they're the best."

The four of them order their food and head back to the lab.

Frank sets up her food and sits next to her while Alexx sits on the other side and Maxine sits across from her. He ate a French fry and asks, "ok Miranda how did today go?"

Miranda took a bite of one of her fries and said, "great. Aunt Maxine and Aunt Alexx did a big presentation about each of their jobs at the lab. Aunt Alexx showed us how she collects things on people and Aunt Maxine shows us how she finds out what those things that Aunt Alexx collects are."

She takes a drink of her soda and Maxine continues, "yeah. We set a big table up in front of the class and called some kids up who had substances on their hands and Alexx collected the swabs and I analyzed them to tell the class what the substances were using the mass spec. The class loved it."

Maxine ate a bite of her chicken fry and Alexx continued, "we couldn't go into too many details about me dealing w/ the bodies so I just told them about how I collect stuff on people and give it to the CSI's to find out what the stuff is."

Frank smiled and said, "sounds like a good presentation you guys did. Did you like it Miranda?"

She giggled before taking a bite of another chicken fry, "of course I loved it. I wanna come to the lab and see the real thing someday."

Frank perked up, looked at Maxine and Alexx and said, "that's a great idea. When you get home you should mention it to mommy and daddy." Miranda barely choked on the rest of her chicken fry when saying, "you really think that mommy and daddy would let me come to the lab and hang out?"

Alexx jumped into the convo and said, "sure. I think they'd love to show you around the lab. I know I'd love a visit from my favorite God daughter."

Maxine pushed her hair back and laughed, "you know Miranda. I could use a smart little girl like you to help me in the lab when I get overwhelmed with stuff and Aunt Nat is out with either mommy, daddy or Uncle Ryan."

She nearly jumped out of her chair and said, "you'd really let me help you in the lab Aunt Maxine?"

She bit her sandwich and nodded her head.

Alexx looked at Miranda funny and said, "I could use some help too sometimes. Do you think you'd wanna help me out sometime too?"

Miranda laughed, "of course Aunt Alexx. I like to help everybody. I'm a very helpful girl. Even mommy says so."

Just then Frank looked at his watch and sighed, "I'm sorry kiddo but we have to get you back to school and I have to get back to work."

She put her head down and bought it back up again and said, "can't I come to the lab with you guys and help out. I don't like school."

Frank collected Miranda's trash and asked her, "why not?"

She looked back at Maxine and Alexx and said, "some girls don't like me. They only liked me before I got sick. They think I played something called hookie"

Frank looked at her sat down next to her and grabbed her hand before curling his lips a bit, "well you know what? If you still have problems with these girls you come to your good old Grandpa Frank and he'll straighten them out for you."

She kissed his nose and said, "you'd do that for me Grandpa Frank?"

He scooped her up in his arms and squeezed her, "of course I would. You're my only granddaughter. I'd do anything to protect you."

Just as the 4 of them come out of the break room to enter the elevator Eric sees them from the prints lab, comes out, crosses his arms and clears his throat, "_Miranda Alicia Delko_ what are you doing out of school young lady?"

She runs up to him and puts her arms out to hug him, "hi daddy."

He curls his lips, "Hi. Now what are you doing out of school young lady?"

Maxine jumped in and said, "Eric don't be mad at her. I asked her to go to lunch with us and she said yes."

He looks up at her and sighs, "that's fine but from now on you guys can take her for ice cream or whatnot after school. I don't want her missing anymore school as it is."

Alexx interrupts them, "it was also partially my fault. I should have cleared it with you first. I'm sorry Eric."

He nods his head and Miranda asks him, "do you still love me daddy?"

He picks her up and sits on a bench and puts her on his lap.

H sees everything going on and says, "of course daddy loves you. He would do anything to protect you just like any of us here at the lab would."

Maxine and Alexx nodded their heads in unison, "we agree."

Miranda put her head down, "daddy are you gonna punish me for being bad?"

He hugged her sideways and said, "no. I don't have a reason to punish you. You weren't being a bad girl but from now on when you go to school I'd like you to be there ok?"

She hugs him tightly and said, "I'm sorry daddy."

He picks her up and said, "come on girl. I'll take you back to school."

He puts her on his shoulders and Calleigh sees what's going on.

She comes out of the evidence room and asks Eric, "what's going on?"

Miranda puts her head down and looks at Eric. She puts her finger on her mouth and whispers, "shhh..."

He smiles at her and winks, "ok."

Calleigh puts her hands on her hips and asks, "Eric what in sam hill is going on?"

He sighs and said, "Miranda went to lunch with Alexx and Velera but came to the lab to have lunch with Frank. I'm-"

Calleigh interrupts him, "Miranda don't do that again. I've already had enough stuff going on with you to last me the rest of the month. Eric take her back to school. We'll take punishment when we get home."

Miranda looks at Alexx with a quivering mouth, "mommy. I only had lunch with Aunt Alexx and Aunt Maxine. Ask Aunt Maxine if you don't believe me."

Just then Maxine interrupts them and says, "look Calleigh. I know you're upset but she asked if she could have lunch with us. I know we should have kept her at school but she says she doesn't like it. Girls in her class are constantly picking on her. I've seen it while we were there today."

Calleigh looked at Miranda, "is this true sweetie?" Miranda put her head down and buried her head into Eric's hair, "yes mommy. Please don't make me go back "

She sits down next to Eric while holding Miranda, "I'm sorry baby but if you don't go to school mommy and daddy can get into big trouble."

Alexx steps in and says, 'tell you what Miranda. How about Aunt Maxine and I come over every other day and check on you to see what's going on?"

She smiled wide and said, "I'd love that." Just then they all separate and Eric takes her back to school.

He walks her to her classroom door and kneels next to her, "remember what I said sweetie. If those girls keep picking on you tell the teacher and if that don't work come to one of us."

She kissed his nose and said, "ok I will. Bye daddy." He stands up and puts his hands on his hips, "hey. Are you trying to get rid of me that fast?"

She giggled and said while tilting her head, "of course not daddy. I just wanna see Ms. Mitchell."

He shakes his head and rubs the top of it, "ok. I get the picture. I'll see you after school. Can I get a kiss?"

She smiled and kissed him on the side of his mouth, "bye daddy."


	5. Chapter 5 Final Ch

Later on that afternoon Miranda comes home, "mommy. Daddy I'm home."

Eric comes down the stairs, picks her up and spins her around, "hey baby girl. How did the rest of school go?"

He puts her down and she says, "a little better. The girls that teased me left me alone the rest of the day."

He sat her on the couch and smiled, "that was good. I'm glad they left my little girl alone."

Miranda put her head slightly down and raised her eyebrows, "daddy. I'm a big girl _re-mem-ber_?"

He chuckled and rubbed her head, "I'm sorry. I'll remember to not call you that in public."

She put her book bag down and pulled a box out of it, "daddy I made something for the house. Be very careful with opening it it's very gentle."

He puts it on the table in front of the couch and kneels down to open it. He widened his eyes and said, "wow. Did you grow this in school all by yourself?"

She jumped in his arms and said, "yup. I did it just for you daddy."

Just then Cal comes home and sits on her favorite chair, "boy am I beat."

Eric comes over to her and starts rubbing her feet.

Calleigh notices Miranda on the couch alone, "I'm sorry sweetie. Come here." She does so and Cal kisses her forehead wraps her arms around her and holds her, "how did the rest of today go?"

Miranda looked at her as if she was about to cry, "mommy. You didn't notice the flowers I gave daddy."

Cal looks up and said, "Oh my gracious. They're beautiful. How long did it take you to grow them that big?"

She laughed and said, "half the marking period. But I also did something for you since I knew pink was your favorite color."

She got off of Calleigh and took a long white box out of her bag. She gave it to Cal and said, "here mommy." She handed Cal the box and she opened it.

She looked at Miranda as if she was about to cry, "thank you baby. I'm sorry I got mad at you at the lab."

Miranda hugged her,"it's Ok mommy. I'm sorry I left school without asking"

Cal picks her up and sets her on her lap again, "it's Ok. How about you, daddy and I spend the weekend together?"

She looks up at Eric and said, "yeah. That sounds like fun. What are we doing?"

He looks up at her sitting on Calleigh's lap and tickles her, "we're gonna spend tomorrow at Uncle H's for a picnic with everybody."

She jumps in his lap and said, "that sounds great. How early do I have to get up?"

He looks up at Cal and she says, "we need to be there by lunch time. He's making so much food it's not even funny."

She giggled and said, "great. I love his burgers. They're great."

The next day they get up and head over to H's.

Horatio greets Cal, with a hug, Eric with a handshake and he scooped up Miranda and squeezed her tight, "hey. How's my favorite Goddaughter?"

She hugged him and said, "I'm great Uncle H. I couldn't wait to come to see you."

He holds her in his arms and laughed slightly, "well Grandpa Frank, Aunt Maxine and Aunt Alexx are here. Uncle Ryan and Aunt Nat haven't gotten here yet."

She put her head down and said, "Aww man that's too bad. I have something for both of them. Can I give Aunt Maxine and Alexx the gifts I have for them?"

He kissed her forehead and puts her down before running his fingers through her hair and says, "yeah. They're outback."

She runs to the car and gets the boxes, "Uncle Horatio can you close the door for me?"

He comes up to her and shuts the car door.

She puts the boxes in her arms and runs up to Maxine and Alexx, "Aunt Maxine. Aunt Alexx. I have something for you."

They turn around from talking to one another and notice she has boxes in her hands.

They come over and take them from her.

They all sat at the picnic table and Miranda said, "one box is for each of you."

Alexx opens her box first to reveal a potted tulip plant.

She looked up at Miranda and said, "thank you. Let's get some water for it. It looks a little dried out."

Miranda hugged Alexx and said, "you're welcome Aunt Alexx. Before we put water in the pot I want Aunt Maxine to open her gift."

Maxine sits the box in front of her and opens it to reveal a frame with a photo of Maxine holding her while they're looking at each other laughing.

Maxine gets up and hugs her tight, "thank you. I'll keep this on my desk at work everyday."

Just then Nat calls out to Miranda, "hey girl. I hear everybody else is getting presents. Where's mine?"

Miranda pulls out a bag from under the table and says, "here Aunt Nat."

Natalia sits down and opens the box.

She pulls out the book and ran her fingers through her hair.

Miranda looks at her and asked, "is something wrong Aunt Nat?"

She smiled and said, "no sweetie. Why on earth would you think that?"

Miranda looked on the ground and said, "because that was the day my friend went missing and I hung out at the lab while mommy and daddy went to find her."

Nat sat her on her lap and pulled her head up, "listen Miranda. I'm not upset because you gave me the book at all. In fact I love it. I'm upset because I think of what happened to your friend everyday and think of what I would do if somebody ever took you from mommy or daddy."

Just then Ryan arrives with Tripp as Horatio trails behind them.

They all greet each other and Ryan notices the gifts everybody has and crosses his arms, "Ok Missy. Where is mine?"

She pulls an envelope out of her jacket and said, "here uncle Ryan."

He hugged her and said, "thank you girl."

He opens the envelope and pulls out the tickets, "Thank you so much. You did great."

Just then H looks at the envelope and asks him, "what did she give you Wolfe?"

He held up the tickets and rubbed it into their faces, "season tickets to the entire baseball season this year."

Horatio looked at him in jealousy, "wow. What a gift. How did you get those Miranda?"

She looked at Eric and said, "daddy helped me buy them off the computer."

Ryan walked up to him and hugged him, "thanks man."

Eric hugged him back and said, "just a little thank you for being a great uncle to her."

He sat down, put Miranda on his lap and hugged her from behind while whispering, "great choice little lady. Daddy's very proud of you."

Just then she goes back in the house and gets a box for Horatio, "Uncle H you need to sit down to open this. It can be damaged very easily."

He looks at Calleigh and she nods her head. He does so and Miranda give him the box. He slowly opens it and looks at Miranda with wide eyes, "did you pick this out yourself?"

She giggled and said, "kind of. I told mommy what I wanted to do for you and she helped me pick it out."

Just then Maxine looks in the box and asks, "what is it?"

He pulls out a leather jacket and shows it to everybody.

Frank looks at her and said, "these are all great gifts but what did you do for me?" She put her arms around him and said, "I saved the best for last."

She took another bag from under the table and said, "here grandpa Frank."

She pulls out a tall box and Frank slowly begins to open it. He pulls back the paper and looks at Miranda w/ wide eyes, "I can't believe you did that for me. I've always wanted one of these."

She hugs him from behind while Frank pulls out his sandy brown cowboy hat and says, "now when you go out to catch bad guys you can wear it to have a part of me with you."

He hugged her from the side and said, "thanks princess."

Just then they leave for the beach.

They all sit down and Calleigh sits on Eric's lap while Nat sit on Ryan's.

Miranda sits on Horatio's lap and he hugs her from behind, "so what do you want for lunch?"

She looks in the basket and says, "you made my favorite hamburgers.." She grabs one from the basket and grabs a juice. She starts to eat her sandwich and says, "Daddy. Uncle Horatio look at that." They turn and watch dolphins come out of the water.

She grins and says, "I wanna go play with them."

She runs off and Eric runs after her, "Miranda Alicia come back here young lady."

Miranda doesn't hear him and continues to run in the water.

Calleigh jumps up and sees what's going on, "MIRANDA!" She runs into the water after her but Miranda falls into the crashing waves.

They pick her up and Alexx comes up to them and kneels down next to her. She begins CPR process while Horatio comes next to her and starts mouth to mouth.

They continue the process and H calls an ambulance.

A few minutes later they arrive and the head EMT asks, "ok. What's going on?"

Calleigh walked away and Ryan held Nat, "she saw dolphins in the water and went to play with them. We called her several times but she couldn't hear us. She couldn't hear us, we got her out of the water and started CPR process right away."

The EMTs kneel down and do their work to check her out and they tilt her head to release the water from her lungs, "it doesn't seem as though she has any water in her lungs which is very good."

Calleigh comes back and asks them, "is my baby going to be ok?"

The EMT looks up at her and says, "she'll be fine. Just keep an eye on her for the rest of tonight and tomorrow. If anything changes bring her to an emergency room immediately."

Eric and Cal nod their heads and he continues to work on her and he packs up his things, "she'll be fine. Keep her away from the water for a day or two."

Eric picks up Miranda and they both hug her, "don't ever do that again. You had us nearly scared to death."

She puts her head down and says, "I"m sorry daddy. Are you mad at me? If you are are you gonna punish me?"

Calleigh pushes her hair back, "yes. I am a little upset but I'm glad you're ok. No we won't punish you. Just don't run off like that again."

They put her down and she sat back on H's lap and she finished her sandwich. She tried to open her juice but couldn't get the straw in. Ryan grabs it from her and says, "here." He put the straw in the hole and gave it back, "there you go."

Nat took a sandwich out of the basket and broke off a piece and fed it to Ryan.

He bit it and said, "thank you." T

hey continue their day together and when Cal, Eric and Miranda go home Eric tells her it's bath time.

She goes and gets her bath and changes into her PJ's and curls up in Eric's arms.

He rubs her sides and asks her, "are you ok?"

She smiles at him and says, "yeah. I'm fine."

Calleigh sits next to them and says, "well. The EMT told us we have to stay with you tonight so which one do you want to stay with you tonight?"

She smiled and asked, "can both of you stay?"

Calleigh laughed before looking up at Eric, "sure we can. I think daddy would like that."

About 2 hrs later, they put her to bed, read to her and kiss her goodnight before cuddling up around her.


End file.
